Dome Thickness Prediction of Composite Pressure Vessels by a Cubic Spline Function and Finite Element Analysis

Nowadays, finite element analysis (FEA) plays an important role in the design of composite pressure vessel. The more accurate finite element models are created, the more precise results could be obtained. In order to create the accurate finite element model for composite pressure vessels, a cubic spline function was developed to predict the dome thickness basing on the principle of total volume preservation of all bands at dome section. In the paper, the dome thickness of an arbitrary composite pressure vessel was forecasted by the cubic spline function and compared with the existing methods and actual measured values. The results show that the cubic spline function is more realistic than the other methods. Then the FEA considering the dome thickness pre-calculated by various methods was performed and compared with experimental data. The results further indicate that the cubic spline function could provide a more accurate model, which is approaching the real case.